Doctors warn of 111 hotline 'Easter disaster’

Patients are being put at risk due to catastrophic failings of the new NHS 111
non-emergency phone line, doctors have warned.

The new service, which will replace NHS Direct, was supposed to launch nationally on Monday, offering medical advice over the phone, and ensuring serious cases are transferred to an out-of-hours doctor, or sent an ambulance.

Doctors say attempts to test the service in the past week have met with disaster in many parts of the country, with elderly patients forced to wait hours for an ambulance, and one city abandoning the scheme in just 11 hours.

In other cases, call handlers without clinical training dispatched paramedics to the most trivial cases, heaping pressure on overstretched services, ambulance workers said. A number of trusts have abandoned trials altogether and reverted to old systems.

While the national phone line has yet to be launched to the public, in recent weeks many parts of the country have started using the system to handle all calls for GP services at evenings and weekends.

Yesterday the British Medical Association’s GP leader wrote to Sir David Nicholson, the head of the NHS, warning that patients were facing immediate risk during the Easter bank holiday weekend.

Dr Laurence Buckman, the chairman of the BMA’s GP committee, urged the Government to stall the service, until it could be delivered safely.

In the letter he wrote: “I am worried that patients may be put at risk. Locally there seems to be pressure to proceed with implementation when more time is needed to ensure services are fully prepared. I am particularly concerned about implications for patients over the coming Easter weekend, which is one of the peak times for demand.”

In Manchester, the system was introduced eight days ago, and shut down just 11 hours later after a catalogue of errors.

Dr John Hughes, a Manchester GP, said that within hours of the launch, out-of-hours doctors grew increasingly concerned about the lack of calls they were receiving, only to find out that patients, including a 90-year-old woman, had been left waiting for help for hours.

He said: “The whole system was in meltdown. I am only glad the ambulance service and out-of-hours service stepped in when they did.”

NHS West Midlands began using the service last week, but abandoned it after three days when the provider was unable to cope with demand.

Wayne Bartlett, the regional project director for NHS 111 in West Midlands, said the service had encountered “operational and technical issues” and acted immediately on them.

In Wiltshire, paramedics said they had been sent to patients with a sore throat, patients stuck in a chair, patients with ear ache and a painful wrist. “We are picking up calls that are completely inappropriate and we are having to respond with lights and sirens on,” a paramedic in south-west England said.

“Some of the patients concerned are astonished that an ambulance has turned up. They said they wanted to speak to a doctor or get some advice.” Crews said they feared those in genuine need of an ambulance may not be reached in time.

A spokesman for NHS England said authorities were aware of some difficulties in the introduction of the service but were confident that measures were in place to resolve them.